Cobb/Edwards and the T206 Honus Wagner

[Brian-Chidester]

Originally Posted by MW1

Barry has hit the nail squarely on its head.

I still remember the two guys (Ray Edwards and John Cobb) from the 1992 Cincinnati show in which they purchased their T206 Wagner. It was from a dealer a few tables down from where I was set up. The dealer had an entire display devoted to reprints and broder cards and he had a fair number of reproduction T206 Wagners. John had purchased one of these cards and put it in a thick, lucite screwdown. He brought the lucite screwdown by my table and asked me what I thought the card was worth. Brian, who was with me, told him, "Nothing, it's a reprint", to which he replied, "Just you wait. It's going to be worth something someday."

I also remember purchasing a good condition (creased and worn) 1965 Topps Joe Namath from the pair of entrepreneurs and spent a short amount of time looking through a box of rough condition 1960s - 70s comic books and low-grade 1960s baseball cards. Incidentally, when they first brought the box of comic books to our table, they told us it was their "million dollar collection". I remember getting a signed receipt from them for the purchase of the Namath. I don't know if I still have it but if I get some time one of these days, I'll look for it and post an image of it if I can find it. This is significant because in Michael O'Keeffe's book, Ray Edwards denies being at this or any other card show.

Some other details: John was a lot thinner back then and Ray had long, straight hair, kind of like Fabio. We reasoned that he must have used a straight iron to get it to look like that, though we never asked him specifically.

One additional thought. Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson do seem to reach a conclusion about the nature of the Cobb/Edwards reprinted T206 Wagner. Here is what they write at the top of page 154 in The Card:

"If Cobb and Edwards were truly a couple of con artists, as so many of the Network54 collectors and dealers said they were, they surely would have ditched their T206 Wagner years ago and moved on to something more profitable."

This stuff is so interesting. Sad, actually.

For the record, O'Keefe and Thompson's logic crossed my mind too, but of course it is in no way solid deduction. Because if the card sold for anywhere over a quarter of a million dollars, it'd be worth keeping the pursuit alive for 25+ years.